CPAs have opportunities in financial planning and forecasting

Many accountants may have opportunities to expand their service
offerings to small business clients by providing financial planning
and forecasting, according to a new survey.

Just one in three accountants offers financial planning or forecast
services as part of clients’ business planning process, according to a
survey of 150 accountants by business software company Exact.

“Small businesses that see the bigger picture are likely to
capitalize on an opportunity before their competition does, but too
many are focused on the day to day,” Steve Leavitt, general manager of
U.S. cloud solutions for Exact, said in a news release. “Accountants
would be wise to position their offerings as much more than
bookkeeping and tax preparation. The same data that’s used to run
day-to-day operations can also help accountants drive active planning
and performance management, enabling them to provide added value to
their clients.”

Practitioners and firms can
deepen their relationships with clients by going beyond
traditional core services such as tax preparation to embrace roles as
“trusted business advisers.” Promoting CPAs as trusted advisers was
one of the 10 main objectives of the future-focused CPA Horizons
2025 report released in 2011.

Another area of opportunity: reviewing clients’ performance against
their business plan; 33% of respondents in the Exact survey said they
never conduct such reviews for their clients.

The ability to advise on strategy is weighed carefully by businesses
when they choose a CPA, according to another survey whose results were
released this year. Proactive strategic advice was ranked as the
third-highest factor small and medium-size business owners consider
when selecting a CPA, according to a survey of 188 business owners by
small business consulting firm The Sleeter Group. Expertise and
responsiveness were the only factors that ranked higher than the
ability to provide strategic advice.

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